Fire Rescue Victoria Act 1958

For the purposes of this section, Fire Rescue Victoria is responsible for the control and direction of all members of units in the Fire Rescue Victoria fire district.

On an alarm of fire being received by a unit, those members of the unit specified by Fire Rescue Victoria must, with the appliances and equipment specified by Fire Rescue Victoria, proceed with all practical speed to the scene of the alarm of fire.

At the scene of an alarm of fire the senior member of the operational staff—

shall endeavour by all practical means to have any fire suppressed and any person or property in jeopardy saved;

shall have the control and direction of any unit present and of all persons assisting any unit or units at the scene;

may, for the purposes of dealing with any alarm of fire, cause—

any land building structure vessel or vehicle to be entered upon or into (if necessary by force), taken possession of, shored up, pulled down, otherwise destroyed or removed;

any vehicle or equipment to be taken through upon or into any land building structure vessel or vehicle;

water to be shut off from any main pipe or other source of supply in order to obtain a greater pressure or supply of water; and

any road waterway railway or tramway to be closed to traffic or any main pipeline conduit or conductor of gas electricity oil or any source of power fuel or energy to be shut off;

may order to withdraw any persons who interfere by their presence or otherwise with the operation of the unit or units, and cause to be removed any persons who fail or refuse to comply with any such order to withdraw; and

may take such other measures as appear necessary for the protection of life and property.

A person shall not be liable to any penalty or claim by reason of any action taken under subsection (3)(c)(iii) or (iv).

Where the scene of an alarm of fire is land which by virtue of section 4(2) is part of the Fire Rescue Victoria fire district, or is a vessel berthed adjacent to such land, the senior member of the operational staff shall so far as practicable consult with an officer of Ports Victoria (within the meaning of the Transport Integration Act 2010) designated for that purpose by Ports Victoria.

For the purposes of this section, an alarm of fire from Triple Zero Victoria is to be taken not to have been received by a particular unit until a message in the prescribed form is received by the unit from Triple Zero Victoria.

In this section, senior member of the operational staff, in relation to the scene of an alarm of fire, means the person determined in accordance with the directions of Fire Rescue Victoria to be the senior member of the operational staff at the scene.